Bonded Summoner

It had been three days since Tanda left, and Jake was putting the finishing touches on Hearthtribe’s new enchanting workshop. Jake had finally finished the Auril Etchers, and integrated them with a few of the higher level devices. Several workstations looked a lot like a lathe, but were meant for carving and shaping wood using the tool while infusing the ink, mana, and auril into it.

Jake had finally found an excellent combination of mana and auril to make ink, with Fhesiah’s help, to facilitate tattooing the items with the beastkin people’s runes. The weapons now were absolutely deadly, and Jake was more than impressed with what they were able to accomplish. Their amberwood arrows and javelins had some interesting effects depending on their auril manifestations.

It’d only been a few days, but Brock had already managed to unlock his. It was not particularly good for arrows, but it created a much larger barrier around his shield. The man was now constantly doing incursions, taking his two, almost three, mates along with him.

“Wow, Chief! These look really neat!”

Jake just wryly smiled at the cute goat beastkin girl, that was Brock’s third prospective mate. She had short white hair with her little goat ears poking out high on her head, along with black horns and a tanned body.

These beastkin really moved fast, he found. Her name was Mindy, and she was going to be a healer, having picked the advanced specialization after awakening. Her goal was to enchant equipment for her party, currently. Jake thought it would be better for her to learn something like alchemy, but apparently, Serena was doing that instead, while Bria was working on amberwood carvings. She would be making bows, arrows, and weapons of all kinds out of their wood.

Brock was cooking, or rather, grilling, surprisingly. When he heard that Jake loved to cook and why, he took it on with a passion. He grilled and smoked meat a good portion of the time he was not training or running incursions, as his good will for the people of Kenwodi and those around the world.

Jake responded to Mindy with a smile, “It might be some time before they can be used effectively, but I think it’s nice to see what to aim for. You have to practice using the machine to get good at using it, after all.”

Mindy nodded. “Yeah, it takes me a while to etch a single item. Having the item held and moved for me hardly helps. But I can tell once I get as fast as you, um, if I ever get as fast as you are now, Chief, I’m sure I will appreciate it!”

Jake had found that there were many methods for spreading the ink for both simple and mass production. For something like an arrow shaft, simple spiraling lines along it aided both the flowing of auril, but also storage or enhancement from manifestations when dipped into a weak ink. There was a hawk beastkin that filled the shaft and feathers with their auril, and it made the arrow fly much faster and straighter, having nearly no effect when infused to the arrowhead by itself. The arrowhead could have just the auril rune, and it would be enough for it to last the few moments an arrow was in flight before it struck the target.

Fhesiah interrupted his thoughts, [You know, you’d have a fourth mate already if you had just expressed interest in Tanda. You just have to sing the song of her people, and I bet she’d be all yours. Still, there are a lot of options here in Kenwodi. There’s this healer in her flock, Avina–]

“I do like Tanda, I think she would work out well in our family, as well as our party. Of course, she’s beautiful, and I do find her attractive.” He chuckled. “Her tail wagging and her ears betraying her emotions are cute, too. Then, I like her keen mind, and her desire to both fight and learn. She values many of the same things, but would she be willing to leave this world?”

[Who says she really has to? This is going to become our home base of sorts. Our goal was to join this community, and it will be just like our refuge. Our guild will recruit from here, and we’ll ensure that we have the right leadership here to take care of it at all times. I’m sure she’s worried about maintaining the balance, but we’ll leave that to our Tribe, with all the enemies gone, it should be easy. We’ll do such a good job, she’ll get antsy for something to do if we stayed, well, besides have children? So for now, just think of your ‘song’ in case she meets you half way, as Ophelia put it.]

Jake sighed. He was not going to be good at coming up with a song, that was often accompanied by a dance. To some extent, their language was quite musical. Just speaking in her language sounded like a song, especially now that he had gotten a little better at speaking it.

“Worried about the people in the villages again, Chief? You shouldn’t be! We’re doing great, our people are embracing a lot of changes. You and Ophelia have built all those gondolas, and you even cleared Wildheart to the southeast. That wall is being built in record time, and people wanting to join our guild are showing up in droves! The Chieftess added a ton of Alliance Nodes, and many people are joining the Framework. You should be overjoyed!”

Jake chuckled. “I was just thinking about a different type of challenge than the war, is all. If you wouldn’t mind, could you tell me how things go for courtship of your people? Like, I suppose Brock’s clan situation is somewhat similar to mine, now. How did he approach you?”

Mindy blushed. “Um… I met Serena during training, and she liked my effort, and that I had already awoken? I’m not very strong, but I was working really hard! The Framework helps a lot, to always feel like your efforts are worthwhile. So we talked, and…she felt like we were compatible? So then Brock sung his song about the dreams for his clan, and, well… We’re all a part of Hearthtribe, right? I wanted to help beastkin, and others. My heart was moved, and I returned his song, and we fought a courtship duel. Brock proved he was strong enough to protect me and has great potential, so now we’re courting.”

Jake somewhat understood. His tribe was being joined by many beastkin with similar goals, so many of their goals would be quite compatible. Things would change somewhat as the war was won on Highlands, in terms of how clans might specialize.

“What happens next?”

“W-Well, next I kind of spend time with each of his clan members, alone and together? And um…eventually, if our hearts beat as one with the whole family, he gives me his necklace? Then, umm…” She blushed.

Jake thought back to when he met Brock on the sparring field. Not even one day had passed. He did all that in one day, or rather, a few hours? But Mindy here didn’t have her necklace, yet.

“Didn’t Serena and Bria have their necklaces on the first day?”

Mindy blushed again. “Um, well… The first mate is a little different, and Brock awakened in Serena’s protection on top of that, so they kinda skipped steps? But Bria and him just…clicked I guess? I’m a little jealous, but as the clan gets bigger, it becomes harder for all the hearts to truly beat as one and sing the same song, unless you’re truly compatible. So I have to sync with three people, where Bria just had to sync with two.”

“Well, thank you for sharing that with me, I appreciate it.”

“Anytime, Chief! Um, who’s the lucky girl?”

Jake chuckled. “No one yet, but we’ll see. We’ve still got a war to fight.”

Mindy looked thoughtful. “Hm, since you’re a Chieftain, the girls have to be quite special too! Why, only the Ravenwolf Chieftess comes to mind, or maybe Enora? Or there’s that big bull, or tiger-”

Jake laughed, the goat girl was quite excitable. “Well, you said it yourself, right? It can be hard for our hearts to truly beat as one. Potential and strength is certainly important, but my family is still finding its own song, too. Good luck with your courtship.”

“T-Thanks, Chief!”

Jake headed outside the Alliance HQ, to a field within the wall that was being constructed. Ophelia was there helping build the wall, using the stone gathered from the Wildheart city. The stone men filled their storage bracelets with usable stone, and Bloodberri was like a wrecking ball that broke down parts of the wall. They then filled in the gaps and merged the stone together with his spell rods.

There was also enough surplus of it that the refugees and stone workers of Kenwodi pitched in, and they were adding onto it at a decent pace. The front of the wall was already finished, and they were working towards surrounding the city before they would work on increasing the height. Ophelia had been the one driving and coordinating this, building up the stone workers, as well as all crafters in Kenwodi.

She identified that the few stone workers weren’t enough, so put together a plan to rally together as many people as possible to get the wall built. She identified a few tools that Jake could help make, or they could purchase directly from the Nodes, to aid the workers.

They now had several magically or mechanically powered devices, including: cranes, pulleys, carts, jackhammers, cement mixers, and many more. Jake’s motor that went into making gondolas now went into many devices that could be mechanically powered similarly.

Of course, she didn’t do it all on her own. The tribal council were quick to rally up support, then Blood helped with purchase orders to source materials from Highlands. Ophelia had managed to delegate a lot of the work to various new administrators she had managed to obtain and begin training, but they were still stretched quite thin. Still, Jake was impressed with all that Ophelia had accomplished in just a few short days.

Berri was with the kids near the wall, playing baseball. She had started a little league team, and it was starting to take off. She was both coaching and cooking soup for the kids. Blood was really practicing her telekinesis too, floating a glove around or stirring the soup for Berri as she helped the kids with the game.

She was wearing a cap, but wearing her morphing armor to be ready to head out at any time. There were also several parents present helping with cooking, and enjoying watching their kids play the game. There were dozens of kids doing various baseball related drills in other areas of the field, but only one game going on.

A lot of kids were actually practicing what looked like martial arts to Jake. Many were doing agility training and balance related drills, meditation, shadowboxing, sparring, and some were in fact practicing punches and kicks.

The kids were wearing real generic looking baseball outfits, him guessing, picked up on the market.

Berri was currently coaching the batter. They had swung and missed, the kid looking quite discouraged.

“Take a deep breath and relax. Focus on one pitch at a time, do not worry about the past or future pitches, as they do not matter. Only this pitch does. Trust in your training, your practice, and keep your eyes on the ball. You’re here to have fun, so just focus on the ball and your swing. I believe you can hit the ball, so believe in yourself!”

The boy hit the ball, and Berri cheered and laughed so loud you’d have thought he hit it out of the park as they ran to first base. But it just bounded down the field where a girl picked it up easily, nearly getting the boy out.

“Good effort, defense! Stay focused! No matter where the ball goes, you should be moving to your place the moment the ball is struck. Pay attention to your footwork, it’ll help you be where you need to be!”

Jake arrived near the field, and Berri noticed him right away.

She smiled. “Time to go already?”

Jake responded affirmatively in his mind, and she went to prompt some parents and guild members to take over her tasks. He just shook his head in amazement. She only had two hours for today, but she still managed to get a lot going on in such a short period. She came back, and he tried to have addressed what he noticed. “It looks like they’re doing martial arts training?”

Blood responded, “The beastkin people value fighting, so we’ve decided to combine them. There are many aspects of martial arts training that will carry over towards them becoming more effective at playing baseball. We’re planning on alternating between sparring and other training, and playing other types of games, too. They are also spending time in the new school.”

“The kids are having lots of fun! The adults also like the training, and even learning. The kids don’t get any guidance from the Framework, but it should set a great foundation for them when they come of age!”

Jake and Bloodberri headed through their portal, arriving at the furthest village they had cleared to. They had won back a lot of territory, and constructed many gondolas around the area. They were finally getting near the lost Alliance HQ, just a few more rifts remaining. Jake was even having Rookard move the strongest of his guild across the geography, to participate. Now that they had the gondolas, it would only take a couple of days to cross the almost a hundred miles, the warriors able to run for miles. In fact, Jake saw in his last message, that Rookard was only a village or two away from where Jake’s last progress was.

Ophelia was still aiding in construction of the wall, as they moved towards the next rift. Jake had watched the progress of Tanda, and he was impressed. Tens of thousands of beastkin had initiated as she flew north, and hundreds of beastkin joined his guild. Some would head towards Kenwodi, but those furthest away he told to wait, with some joining Tanda’s flock. Jake would be building various gondolas in their direction over time. For them to waste their time traveling, when it was more challenging, and they could spend their time training and doing incursions instead, made little sense.

Jake was more than a little worried, however. Harmony Peaks appeared like it was potentially going to be under assault. It was strange, though. A rift had appeared near it, but there were no others. From what Jake understood, Tartarus could nearly spawn a rift anywhere people were present, and it could be spotted. However, the closer it was to conquest territory that it owned, the cheaper that it would be. So for efficiency’s sake, it would normally chain them across great distances, taking over the conquest map.

After he saw that the rift had spawned, He did notice that there was a small amount of territory that seemed like it hadn’t been reclaimed when the previous assault was completed. This didn’t seem out of the ordinary, as there were no beastkin in this area to push the conquest map back in their favor. Perhaps, this area was why they could spawn a rift nearby? Jake was assured their people were scouting, if there was a rift there, surely it would have been spotted.

Jake called Ophelia using [Call Summon], after he arrived at the next rift. He had found several auril beasts in the last few runs, but hadn’t found anything overly more powerful or more useful than the stegosaurus and the raptor. Apparently, the most ferocious and powerful creatures were at the center of the largest and deepest of valleys, and they hadn’t gone out of their way to go there, just yet.

They cleared the rift with ease, and headed over to the next mountain. Jake now had tens of thousands of conquest points, and had earned many T1 Credits. He was close to having enough saved that he was going to purchase an [Epic Servant - Head Administrator] Token soon, likely after he reclaimed the Alliance HQ. He wanted to make sure there wasn’t any more important things to obtain, as he should get special options when he reclaimed such an important structure.

Among worlds that were lost, there were many non-combatants that could be effective at aiding the Alliance outside of fighting. These people, that were not great at fighting, were not a priority for the Framework to resurrect. Usually, it would wait until the world was reclaimed, leaving those people’s souls to drift in the void of the Framework itself. This was the most efficient usage of its energy.

However, if a combatant like Jake could use a non-combatant, he could sort of ‘pay the cost’ of having the soul retrieved, and placed under his service. Like the summoning tokens, it would evaluate each of their souls, and only summon someone that is willing to serve under a person like Jake. If Jake was some kind of tyrant, it wouldn’t summon anyone that wasn’t willing to serve under such a person, but perhaps someone a little more desperate. To some extent, the longer they drifted in the void, the more willing they might be to accept such an arrangement.

Jake would have some level of control over the person, in terms of being able to decide where or how they lived, and order them around to accomplish tasks fitting their job as a servant. Like how the Framework protected against attacks on one another, it would also protect against abuse of the servant tokens, to some extent. That person would be on the hook to do as ordered until their contract expired, sort of like an indentured servant as repayment for paying the cost to resurrect them sooner.

Of course, for Jake, the details of how a servant contract worked mattered little. There was absolutely no way that a champion of Hestia would abuse some sort of servant or otherwise take advantage of them, right? Jake was in need of an efficient Administrator, or seneschal type person. Blood and Ophelia were doing an amazing job all things considered, but really, someone dedicated to managing and appointing people was needed. The person having knowledge of the Alliance was paramount, and Jake’s guild and the number of initiated requiring some form of direction was growing at an alarming rate.

“Jake, there’s a [Rift] over there. It wasn’t on the [Conquest Map] before.”

Jake looked over to where Ophelia was pointing, and found that she was right. There was a [Rift] there. Jake looked at his map within his menu, and thought it to be quite strange. They were high on the mountain now, so their visibility was quite far. This rift was located in a spot that it shouldn’t be. There was no village in that direction, and it would not be on the path where beastkin traveled. There was only mountainous terrain near there, even if the Rift resided in the valley.

“Well, I guess we should go check it out and clear it? It’s out of our way, but we should make it there within thirty minutes or so? I really wanted to clear to that last village today. But what would come out of that rift, actually attack?”

[Hey, that sounds interesting. Call me once you get there.]

“Call you? I thought you were busy working on your experiments.”

[I’m just trying something out, making some pills right now, it’s no big deal. Just call me, I can do both.]

Jake sighed. Jake should have known her attention span–

[Don’t you think that’s a little rude, husband? I’ll have you know that I dutifully absorbed heavenly energy in a cave for months, even years at a time, without stopping for fun. Clearly, it’s just that I am the one best suited for investigation. It has nothing to do with me wanting to have fun, what with you always finding dinosaurs, and getting giddy like a child and all. Not at all.]

Jake just wryly smiled at that. Of course not. “Alright, I’ll call you when we get there.”

They went into the valley, heading through the forest towards the rift they saw. About halfway to their destination, they noticed that the forest was blighted, the trees only barely being able to fight back against it, but much of the greenery falling victim to it. They even cleared a contingent of skeletons before eventually arriving at the rift.

Jake said aloud, “This is really odd. They are definitely behaving like there are people somewhere. Well, let’s destroy it for now, and we can look for people afterward?”

Ophelia replied, “I think that’s for the best, too. If there are no people here, that’s worrisome.”

[Go ahead and call me. I’m ready.]

Jake called her, and immediately after, her Pill furnace and Cauldron popped into existence. She was floating in the air, like she was laying down sideways with her head resting in her hand, lounging as she monitored her concoctions. She even pretended to be sleeping, with her eyes closed.

Fhesiah said, “Alright, go ahead, I’m having a look around. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

Jake just narrowed his eyes at her. Just how was she having a look around like that? She looked like she was on vacation, not a care in the world.

“Don’t you remember, Jake? Lighthouse! sheesh.”

Jake shook his head, he supposed it didn’t matter if she made it look like she was expending effort or not, if she was really having a look around with her divine sense, even underground. At least she was fully equipped.

They would just wait for Ira and Fhesiah to check the area to see if it was safe, and they would begin.